I Wasn’t Always This Way

While I do enjoy “sophisticated” brews nowadays, that hasn’t always been the case. Back when I first starting drinking beer, I gulped down whatever I could get my hands on (i.e. cheap or free.) That usually meant shit like Old Milwaukee’s Best, Schlitz, and the like. Even when I was old enough to buy my own, I always chose cost over quality. Hell, I thought all beer was the same back them, so I did go with the cheapest. Most of the time I went with malt liquor like Old English 800, St. Ides, and of course Schlitz Malt Liquor. Whatever would get me feeling good for the cheapest price I guess.


When I started making a little money as my career progressed, I jumped up to stuff like Samuel Adams and Red Stripe. Still not great, but much better as far as the taste goes. I didn’t normally drink beer at that point, but when I did it sure as hell wasn’t Dos Equis. Yuck. I was more of a liquor guy back then, which usually consisted of bottles of Jack Daniel’s or Jim Beam (I am a Southerner, you know.) I even enjoyed a good bottle of cognac now and then.


A few years ago, I started getting into beer again. The liquor took a back seat when I discovered IPAs and a whole new world of craft brews. As I started to refine my beer tastes, I found myself turning my nose up at the “mainstream” stuff. I felt a sense of accomplishment when I picked up lesser-known brews from the store while the masses went with whatever the hell was being marketed on the television. Yes, in a few short years I became a beer snob.



A while back, I tried to test my snobbishness by buying a Miller Lite. It was a horrible experience, and it forever cemented my status a choosy beer drinker. I guess I didn’t learn my lesson though, since I came home da udda day with this:




A beer in a paper bag from the local shit and get. What the hell was I doing? Something told me to unwrap my prize and reveal it to the Internets, so here goes:



PBR. Lots of people drink it (and enjoy it), so I figured why the hell not. People I know that actually have good taste in beer seem to dig it, so I just had to give it a shot. It’s been many moons since I’ve had anything from Pabst, and I had all but forgotten how it was. I would soon find out.


I poured it in a glass, mostly because I had to retain some form of beer snobbery whilst tasting “lesser” beers. Besides, I can’t bring myself to drink anything from a can these days. I brought the glass up to my nose to take a sniff. It smelled freaking terrible. I almost gagged as a matter of fact. No delightful aroma, and not really a resemblance of any beer I’ve had in the past few years. I wondered if I could even drink it.


Well, down the hatch it went. I took a sip, and guess what? I actually enjoyed it. For a “shitty, cheap beer”, it wasn’t half bad. If had gone on smell alone I probably would have poured it right down the damn sink. Luckily I didn’t, and I finished the 24 ounces of inexpensive brew. Would it be good enough to get me to buy it regularly? Nope, but I would most likely drink one if there was nothing else available.


Lesson learned. Even though I like the finer stuff now, it’s not necessarily a bad thing if I lower my standards once in a while. So if you see me out somewhere drinking some shit beer, remember that I’m probably just doing it for the people that read this shit. How else am I gonna come up with stuff to talk about every day?